Houston, TX

Houston is the 4th largest container port in the U.S. by volume. Houston container traffic is centered on one of the country’s largest maritime freight gateways and the dominant container port on the Gulf Coast. Port Houston operates the Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals and handled a record 4.3 million TEUs in 2025, accounting for roughly three-quarters of Gulf Coast container traffic. Houston’s enormous petrochemical and manufacturing sector also creates unusually strong export flows, particularly resins and plastics, so 20ft, 40ft, and 40ft high cube containers move through the region in large quantities in both import and export service at high volumes.

Houston also has a particularly dense combination of ship, rail, truck, pipeline, and warehouse infrastructure. Barbours Cut has a dedicated intermodal rail facility with service from Union Pacific and BNSF, while the surrounding Port Terminal Railroad network connects the port complex with the broader national rail system. At the same time, thousands of trucks move containers through Bayport and Barbours Cut each day, feeding the region’s extensive network of container depots, warehouses, and industrial facilities. This combination of exceptionally high marine container volume, strong export demand, and extensive intermodal infrastructure creates a large and consistent supply of shipping containers throughout the Houston market. Those factors all lead to Houston having some of the lowest shipping container prices in the country.